Home Prices, Consumer Confidence Nosedive

Home prices plummeted again in January, falling a record 10.7% compared to January 2007, according to the bellwether S&P Case/Shiller Hope Price composite. The March consumer confidence index, also out today, plunged to a 5-year low in yet another indication of recession, Bloomberg reports. The Conference Board measures consumer confidence as well as expectations for the next 6 months; that metric fell to a level not seen since the Nixon administration.

Home prices in Las Vegas and Miami fell furthest, posting 19.3% declines, Bloomberg reports. “Prices have reached what might be called a fair value,” one economist said of the 13th straight monthly decline, but they’ll have to go “substantially past that” to drive demand that would theoretically lead to recovery. Of the consumer mood, an economist said, "It's a discouraging environment. We are almost certainly in a recession." (More housing stories.)